Last Updated on November 9, 2023 by Fasting Planet
If you want to turn back the hands of time, erase wrinkles, and restore suppleness to your face, collagen can be a big help. Available in beauty creams or edible supplements, do you have to worry about using collagen as a vegan, or is it allowable?
Collagen, if it comes from bacteria and yeast, is considered vegan, but most collagen is sourced from animal products and byproducts, including fish and beef. Although it’s unclear whether vegan collagen is as beneficial as the kind from animals, the option is there to use.
Consider this article your crash course on all things collagen. Ahead, you’ll learn what collagen is, whether it’s vegan, and its benefits. We’ll even suggest some vegan-friendly collagen products to use.
What Is Collagen?
The structural protein known as collagen is one of several in the extracellular matrix. Produced in the connective tissue, of all the proteins in your body, up to 35 percent of it is collagen. That’s the case with other mammals as well. Collagen does not stretch and maintains its shape well, so it’s no wonder it’s used for our ligaments, bones, tendons, and skin.
Each collagen protein molecule is comprised of amino acids. There are more than 15 collagen varieties that are divided into four primary collagen types, type I through type IV.
Type I is the most prevalent collagen, as about 90 of your body’s collagen is this kind. Our fibrous tissue, tendons, teeth, connective tissue, and skin all have the natural structure they do thanks to type I collagen.
Type II collagen is looser than type I and provides the elastic cartilage that keeps your joints protected. Type III maintains arterial, organ, and muscle structure. Type IV collagen is for better skin health.
Most people focus only on the skin benefits of collagen, as that’s what this protein is well-known for. Collagen will plump the skin for a youthful appearance. Well, at least for a while.
Your body produces collagen, taking dietary proteins and converting them into amino acids. However, as you get older, your body’s ability to make collagen dwindles. This is where collagen supplements come in.
Certain foods can accelerate the production of collagen in the body too, although this might not happen to such a degree that you can skip the collagen supplements altogether. Here is the list of foods for your perusal. Many are vegan!
- Bell peppers
- Tomatoes
- Cashews
- Beans
- Leafy greens
- Garlic
- Tropical fruits such as guava, pineapple, kiwi, and mango
- Berries
- Citrus fruits, including limes, lemons, grapefruit, and oranges
- Egg whites
- Shellfish
- Fish
- Chicken
- Bone broth
How do these foods increase collagen? They provide your body with nutrients and minerals that collagen requires, including copper, zinc, vitamin C, glycine, and proline.
Organ meats are one source of copper, but far from the only one. Lentils, sesame seeds, cashews, and cocoa powder contain copper as well. Meats and shellfish are rich in zinc, as are non-vegan foods such as cheese and milk. You can also get zinc from seeds, nuts, beans, and lentils as a vegan.
Bell peppers and citrus fruits contain lots of vitamin C, but glycine is based on meat products like chicken or pork skin. Eat asparagus, mushrooms, or cabbage for proline. Dairy and eggs contain it too, but vegans must skip these foods.
Is Collagen Vegan?
Given that collagen is a naturally-produced substance in our bodies, you might think its vegan status is a given. Yet collagen doesn’t only come from within us, but from all sorts of other external sources. For instance, the foods above may have some purpose in increasing collagen production. Egg whites, chicken, shellfish, and fish are not allowable on the vegan diet, but they’re but a smattering of the foods you could eat for more collagen.
Instead of supplementing their collagen dietarily, many more people just take pills, tablets, or other edible collagen supplements. It’s these supplements that are likely not vegan. Most collagen supplements are derived from fish, beef, and other animal-based sources.
Collagen tablets and pills may also contain gelatin, although that could vary by brand. If you need the reminder, gelatin comes from boiled animal bones, ligaments, tendons, and skin, so it’s not something you want to eat as a vegan. Even as a non-vegan, gelatin is quite unappealing once you learn more about it.
Okay, so case closed, right? Not quite!
The need for vegan collagen supplements has been strong enough that experts have begun modifying bacteria and yeast strains to produce a different kind of supplement. These sources of collagen aren’t quite plant-based–yeast is in the fungus kingdom–but they’re not made from animal products or byproducts either.
The Pichia pastoris yeast is the most common in these vegan supplements. As a methylotroph, P. pastoris relies on carbon sources to grow. That was how this yeast strain was founded in 1960, as methanol was used to produce it. Since it’s become more widely understood, P. pastoris is now a yeast of choice for biotech industries, healthcare industries, and biochemical research.
How do scientific experts make collagen supplements from P. pastoris yeast? They take human genes and add them to the microbe’s genetic structure. Four genes are used in all, and each can code for the production of collagen. When the P. pastoris interacts with the genes, it reproduces the human collagen building blocks.
To augment the process, experts will use pepsin. This stomach enzyme usually becomes polypeptides, but in this application, the pepsin oversees the collagen building blocks to make sure they’re the same structure as our own human collagen is.
The Benefits of Collagen
It’s a good thing that vegans can use collagen supplements too, as collagen is incredibly beneficial in the following ways.
Could Help Maintain a Healthy Heart
The structural abilities of collagen can extend to your heart’s arteries so blood can freely travel to and from the heart. Some bodies of research, such as this book Molecular Cell Biology, have found that being deficient in collagen could increase the fragility and weakness of your arteries.
Weak arteries elevate your atherosclerosis risk, which in turn ups your likelihood of stroke and/or heart attack.
In a 2017 study from the Journal of Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis, 31 participants took collagen supplements over six months. Each day, they ingested 16 grams of the supplement. The participants had less arterial stiffness at the end of the study than they had before they started taking collagen. They also experienced a six-percent increase in HDL cholesterol, which is the good cholesterol.
Might Increase Your Muscle Mass
If you’re hitting the gym hard trying to build bigger muscles, make sure you’re taking collagen. Since our muscles are built from collagen, the line of thought is that supplementing with the protein could lead to bigger muscles. That said, experts agree more research must be done in this area.
May Maintain Bone Strength
Like muscles, bones are also collagen-based. You lose bone mass as you celebrate more birthdays, which may be tied to the simultaneous loss of collagen through aging. Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism, in a 2000 report, found that collagen supplements could reduce the rate at which bones break down. That might prevent the development of osteoporosis, but this is another area where experts agree they need to study further.
Could Lessen Joint Pain
Painful, stiff joints from osteoarthritis reduce your quality of life. Collagen can keep your cartilage rubber-like and bouncy so it may better safeguard joints from painful rubbing and other damage.
In 2008, the journal Current Medical Research and Opinion published the results of a study done over 24 weeks. A group of 147 participants was involved. All were prior varsity club sport or team sport players.
The participants were split into groups. One group took real collagen supplements and the others a placebo. The group on the collagen supplements were able to exercise with less pain compared to the ones on the placebo.
3 Vegan Collagens to Try
If you’re looking for some recommended vegan collagen supplements, we have a few here that you should add to your shopping list today.
Rae Wellness Vegan Collagen Boost Powder
Rae Wellness’ vegan collagen boost powder is plant-based with ingredients like bamboo and vitamin C. It comes flavorless so you can easily mix it into your favorite beverages. Rae suggests you combine a scoop of the powder with eight ounces of liquid and then stir.
Hum Nutrition Glow Sweet Glow
If you’d rather get your daily collagen in gummy form, you have to try the Glow Sweet Glow gummies from Hum Nutrition. According to Hum, you could see a skin hydration boost by as much as 84 percent by eating their gummies.
The gummies are gluten-free, non-GMO, and free of any artificial colors and sweeteners. What you do get are vitamins C and E, hyaluronic acid for skin moisture, and amla fruit for antioxidants. The other ingredients are carnauba wax, vegetable oil, natural annatto color, sodium citrate, natural orange flavor, citric acid, pectin, vegetable glycerin, purified water, tapioca syrup, and evaporated cane juice.
Purity Products Vegan Collagen Builder
We also quite like Purity Products’ vegan collagen builder. This supplement is for more than just skin, but healthy immunity, vision, blood vessels, and connective tissue as well. Each serving has vitamin C, silica, biotin, grapeseed extract, and amino acids. You’ll ingest 100 milligrams of organic vegetables and berries, 300 milligrams of amino acid blend, 10 milligrams of FloraGlo lutein, and 300 milligrams of vitamin C for more collagen.
Conclusion
The connective tissue protein collagen is often not vegan in supplement form, but that’s changing. Today, you can find yeast-based and bacteria-based vegan collagen supplements that give you all the skin, bone, hair, and nail benefits of collagen without the animal products and byproducts!